TCS saves the day in India, a severe mid air collision narrowly avoided

Mumbai: Tragedy was averted in Mumbai sky on Wednesday after an Air India and a Vistara flights, flying in opposite directions, sped towards each other and came as close as 100 feet, before a mid-air collision was dodged by just a few seconds. Experts regard this near-miss as the most serious one in recent times, the Times of India reported.

The incident reportedly took place on February 7 in the Mumbai airspace after 8 pm when Air India’s Airbus A-319 was flying from Mumbai to Bhopal as AI 631 and Vistara’s A-320 Neo was flying from Delhi to Pune as UK 997.

While the AI flight was at a level of 27,000 feet, the Vistara plane, with 152 passengers, had been assigned the flight level of 29,000 feet.

However, at 8 pm, the Vistara came down to 27,100 feet, after which the planes sped towards each other with a vertical separation of only 100 feet, the Times of India reported. Following this, the traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) alarms went off in the and the pilots managed to avoid the mid-air crash. “At one point, AI 631 and UK 997 were 100 feet apart vertically and 2.8km laterally apart. They were just seconds away from each other. This is the most serious airport (accident) or near-miss in recent times,” a source told the daily.